Black Indians and Savage Christians: Unmaking the “Other” in the Performance of the Conquest by Sarah Jo Townsend Hemispheric Institute; Townsend, Sarah performance history, historia, história journal, revista paper, ensayo, trabajo escrito, ponencia dance, danza, dança festival Americas, Américas, Américas Latin America, Latinoamérica, América Latina North America, Norteamérica English, Inglés, Inglês ENG: Few of the Spanish conquistadors, either spiritual or secular, could have hoped for a welcome like the one that greeted Alonso Ponce in each of the villages he passed through during his travels in the province of Michoacán from October 1586 to February of the following year. In his Tratado curioso y docto de las grandezas de la Nueva España (Curious and Learned Treatise on the Marvels of New Spain), Ponce\'s secretary Antonio Ciudad Real describes the elaborate festivities featuring dances, mock battles, and occasional plays that invariably culminated in offerings to the Franciscan prelate and requests for his blessing. Hemispheric Institute for Performance and Politics, New York University 2005-05-01 DCMI: Text Hemi: Text text/html http://hemi.es.its.nyu.edu/journal/2_1/townsend.html eng http://hemi.nyu.edu/rights.html public